Article on using your phone in the wild...getting found

Very interesting and useful.

Thanks for posting that link!

"Know what method your carrier uses to fix location. GSM phones (AT&T, T-Mobile) use radio signals to triangulate your position; climb to high ground to reach more towers. CDMA phones (Verizon, Sprint-Nextel) use internal GPS receivers; find an unobstructed view of the sky and wait a few minutes for the phone to lock on to satellites. Smartphones (BlackBerry, iPhone) combine both methods for the most accurate position. "

Thats not accurate either. I've found that make and model of phone will use different methods but most anymore have some kind of gps chip combined with the agps trangulation, its not on a per carrier basis.

The article needs one addition -

STAY IN TOWN!

I suggest you ask the James Kim family their opinion on relying on cell phones.

I think given that the magazine is specific to Backpackers, they didn't feel the need to reiterate advice on carrying multiple means of navigation. So, I can see them just focusing on the subject at hand. Magazines do have to deal with space limitations.

The artical seems good for those that go into town or suburbian locations. The issue I have is that cellphones are infastructure based objects. Once the infastructure is gone,, so isn't its usefullness (except for the part about making a fire with the battery)

When I did trail crew (back when dinasors romed the earth) our trail boss had a cellphone (bag phone, remember them) he left it in the truck becouse it only worked in one area in Baxter State Park in Maine. Now That Was Maine, and that was back in 1991/1992.

The previous statment of using a phone on the top of a mountain or clearing is absolutly spot on.


Also don't forget to keep the phone on the INSIDE of your jacket during the winter, and NOT on you belt where the cold can kill your battery.



I had always thought it would be a cool idea to take thin metal wire and a baloon or a kite (baloon would be better) and have it so that it hooks to your phones antena (back when antenas ports were on phones. Then inflate the balooon and let the thin wire act as the antena. My therory on this was that about 100 or 200 feet of this thin wire (very thin wire) would act as the antena for a short time allowing you connect to towers seeminly out of reach.

If anyone wants to do something with this idea have at it. I think it would be awsome

I had always thought it would be a cool idea to take thin metal wire and a baloon[/quote]

What method of inflation would be compact enough to still remain practical? The only device I have ever seen that small is a spare air for breathing under water, but that is oxygen not helium.

Field expedient antenna-throw the wires up into the trees.

In theory a candle. The heat could lift up the baloon. But I can imagane that it could be very unreliable (strong wind) or it could even end with disaster - the baloon crashes into the trees and the candle sets them on fire.

the 15gm CO2 cartriges used for Airsoft and the like would work well... ok, well CO2 wouldn't elevate a balloon, but the SIZE would work well.